O.C. near new policing role

Illegal immigrant detainees are directed out of vans into a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement holding facility in Westminster. BRUCE CHAMBERS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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PROCESSING AND PAPERWORK: Illegal-immigrant detainees who have been picked up from city and county jails are brought to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement holding facility in Westminster. Above, an unidentified detainee prepares to have his photograph taken on Friday. BRUCE CHAMBERS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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EXPLORING HER OPTIONS: Janet Nguyen, a Garden Grove councilwoman, may pursue a plan similar to the one used by the Sheriff’s Department and Costa Mesa. MARK RIGHTMIRE, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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BACKING ENFORCEMENT: Cypress City Councilman Mike McGill urged the council to send support letters to Costa Mesa and the Sheriff’s Department. MINDY SCHAUER, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Illegal immigrant detainees are directed out of vans into a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement holding facility in Westminster. BRUCE CHAMBERS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Voices

"They have no right to use my (tax) money to enforce immigration. I know illegal immigration has gotten out of hand, but it's the federal government's job to deal with it."Cecil Murrieta of Costa Mesa

"I don't think what the sheriff is doing is going far enough. The bottom line is: You broke the law. How many people can we take in here? The laws need to be enforced."Elaine Proko of Anaheim

"I sense there was a public demand for it and a need for it, and I felt our federal government was failing to do its job."Allan Mansoor, Costa Mesa mayor, on the training of local police to do federal immigration checks

"If we can take one bad guy off our streets who would hurt somebody, no matter what color they are, no matter what their immigration status, that's the right thing to do. Anybody who lives in our community, whether they're a legal resident or an illegal immigrant, they deserve our protection." Mike McGill, cypress councilman

Orange County is poised to become the first local jurisdiction in the nation to have a hybrid, large-scale plan that calls for its law-enforcement officers to assume federal immigration powers over criminal foreign nationals.

Sheriff Mike Carona's department, the county's principal police agency, has a draft contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that is expected to be approved by the Orange County Board of Supervisors this month.

Although one city, Costa Mesa, has jumped in behind the Sheriff's Department and is working with federal authorities, most Orange County cities are reluctant to change decades-long policies that leave citizenship checks of undocumented suspects to the federal government.

Thirty-one Orange County cities polled by the Register have no plans to change the status quo, and will continue to call federal authorities for possible deportations of law-breaking undocumented foreigners. Another city, Garden Grove, is studying the issue and may move forward in Costa Mesa's footsteps.

Where some see a brave new world that breaks down the barriers between the local and federal levels to promote public safety, others see an increasingly bitter line drawn between city officials and the Hispanic community on the issue of illegal immigration.

But the debate does not end there, as the issue has also created a push-pull within cities, pitting police who don't want the federal powers and politicians who see a popular cause.

Garden Grove Police Chief Joseph M. Polisar, in an analysis ordered by the City Council, strongly urged against implementing such a plan. The enforcement would erode the public trust in one of the county's most diverse cities, be an expensive proposition for a small staff and could create more problems than solutions to crime, he said.

"Until our borders are secured and we have a workable immigration policy, any enforcement at the local level would be akin to trying to sweep back the ocean with a whiskbroom," Polisar wrote.

But Janet Nguyen, a Garden Grove councilwoman who is exploring a run for the California Assembly, said she is interested in pursuing a plan like those sought by the Sheriff's Department and Costa Mesa.

"I think there's a need and there's a problem," Nguyen said. "If we can get criminals off the streets and into the jails and away from our children, I would support it."

Carona's plan was born nearly two years ago as he was thinking about a way to get undocumented career criminals out of the Orange County jails.

Carona figured it would cost the county nearly $40,000 a day to house foreign inmates, so he came up with what he called "the quintessential NAFTA" plan, a kind of "free trade" pact concerning criminals.

Because of a little-used provision in the Mexican Constitution that allows for nationals convicted of a crime to be sent back to the country, Carona suggested the Mexican government build the jails and the county would pay it $30 a day per inmate, roughly half the daily cost of housing one prisoner in the Orange County jails.

He met with then-Rep. Christopher Cox, R-Newport Beach, who suggested Carona look at a 1996 law Cox helped write that says local police agencies could sign an agreement with the federal government to get training and then enforce U.S. immigration law. Carona decided to pursue Cox's suggestion.

Bill Campbell, an Orange County supervisor, was also at the Cox-Carona meeting and supports Carona's plans.

"It makes sense," Campbell said. "Here are people who are committing criminal acts who are here illegally, so let's get 'em out of here. The (feds) won't station enough people in our jails, they can't participate in our special investigative units, so let's get our people capable of enforcing the law."

Working under the provisions of the 1996 law, Carona has crafted a plan unlike any of the five local-national pacts currently in place in the United States.

Carona's plan calls for about 200 deputies posted in the jails and those who work on investigations to get the federal training and authority. That means those deputies may use federal databases and other resources to check on the status of those they suspect of serious crimes - felonies such as rape, murder, robbery, child sex abuse, gang activity - or known criminals who were deported in the past.

What the plan does not include is giving that same authority to patrol deputies - a major piece of Carona's original plan. The sheriff compromised with his advisory group of two dozen representatives from minority communities, pulling patrols from the plan because of the group's fears that it would lead to profiling based on ethnicity or race.

However, Carona will consider adding patrols to the program when he conducts a review after its first year - a still controversial slice of his plan.

"This is not an immigration issue. It's a criminal-justice issue," Carona said. "It's a crime tool."

The financial cost will be $15million to $20million over the next five years, according to Campbell. The county will apply for a federal grant from a fund that already has up to $200million set aside for local training.

There is also a cultural cost. The Hispanic and civil-liberties communities are outraged about the plans and are rallying people to call supervisors and demand "no" votes.

A coalition led by activist Nativo Lopez is threatening a boycott of Costa Mesa businesses that refuse to publicly oppose the plan.

Some Hispanic leaders say the proposals would break the fragile relationships the communities have forged with police over time and would cut down on crime reporting to police.

They say undocumented people who are victimized - women who are sexually assaulted or illegal immigrants who are held by smugglers - will be afraid to report crimes or ask for help, fearing they could be deported.

"The bottom line is: (the plan) does come at a cost when you do depend on a community's willingness to help solve crimes," said John Trasviña, a senior vice president with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund. "What you end up with is a lot of community ill will and tensions."

If authorities want criminal undocumented immigrants deported, there are already laws in place to do so, Trasviña said.

Local jails can call federal immigration officials and request a deportation hearing six months before a prisoner's sentence is up. Then, a judge can decide if federal immigration officials can step in and send the criminal home.

So far, Florida, Alabama and Arizona have teamed up with federal immigration officials to make citizenship checks.

Two California counties - Los Angeles and San Bernardino - have received federal training solely for use in their jails.

Nearly a dozen applications from jurisdictions across the country are pending, according to federal immigration officials.

Plans for immigration checks by local police

The Register polled cities on whether they will follow the lead of the Orange County Sheriff's Department to get federal approval for local law enforcement to enforce immigration law. The sheriff's agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is expected to be approved by the Orange County Board of Supervisors this month, but most cities have no plans to follow the sheriff's lead.

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